How your likes influence your News Feed

Facebook’s goal with News Feed is to show everyone the right content at the right time. That way, you can be sure to stay in touch with the stories that are important to you. Some posts, for instance those created when you and friends are watching the same sports game, are only timely and interesting at that specific moment. Posts that are more than two days old, but linger in your News Feed may not be relevant to you anymore. With these considerations in mind, Facebook had improved its News Feed.

How your likes influence your News Feed

Facebook distinguishes two decisive factors that determine the importance of messages in your News Feed.

Trending topics: Posts on news and current developments will be shown higher up in your News Feed as soon as they occur. This means that when a friend or Page you are connected to posts about something that is currently a hot topic, that post appears higher up in News Feed. A test has shown that this update leads to a more than 6% increase in people engaging with these stories.

Likes and comments: Facebook no longer scores the total number of likes that a post has received, but now ranks posts in the News Feed based on the moment when they attracted engagement. This happens in two ways.

Facebook looks at the time lapse between the publication of a post and the attraction of likes and shares. Are people engaging with the post right after it is posted, and not as much a few hours later? Then that post will appear lower in News Feed at a later date.

Facebook will also start bumping posts: resurface those stories that are in the News Feed, but that do not get seen enough, because people do not scroll down far enough.

Will this affect your News Feed?

This update will not lead to significant changes, because the change will be rolled out gradually. Read more in Facebook’s original post.